Increase In HARP 2.0 Applications Boosts Banks Short-Term Income
April 20, 2012
Lenders should expect at least a short-term boost in profits from the Federal Housing Finance Agencys recent tweaks to the Home Affordable Refinance Program, analysts say as the industrys largest lenders have seen a big increase in new refinance applications for HARP 2.0. In its first-quarter earnings report issued last week, Chase cited the impact of HARP in part for generating $1.6 billion in mortgage production revenue, an 80 percent increase from a year earlier. Likewise, Wells reported first-quarter mortgage originations to be up $9 billion from the fourth quarter of 2011, with 15 percent of originations credited to HARP, while application volumes rose 20 percent during the same period.